Marriage: Wives Obtained by Purchase

So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, yet it seemed but a few days because of his love for her.

Moreover, I have acquired Ruth the Moabitess, Mahlon’s widow, as my wife, to raise up the name of the deceased through his inheritance, so that his name will not disappear from among his brothers or from the gate of his home. You are witnesses today.”

So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley.

Jacob fled to the land of Aram and Israel worked for a wife—for a wife he tended sheep.